The present invention relates to the airline industry, and more particularly, the field of cargo handling.
One of the most time consuming and costly processes in the airline industry, both the commercial and cargo airline industry, is loading and unloading cargo and luggage from an aircraft before takeoff and after landing. In the commercial airline industry, the current process of loading and unloading luggage begins when passengers check in multiple articles of luggage at a front gate or at curbside check-in. The luggage is labeled with the final destination and sent through a complicated sorting process. Once the luggage is sorted, it is loaded onto one of a plurality of luggage carriers. The plurality of luggage carriers are then linked together and transported to the aircraft in a xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d formation. When the xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d of luggage carriers arrive at the location of the aircraft, a series of steps and a plurality of persons are required to unload the individual articles of luggage from each of the luggage carriers, place the individual articles of luggage on a conveyor belt that transports each individual article of luggage to a cargo hold in the lower fuselage of the aircraft, receive each individual article of luggage at the entrance of the cargo hold, and organize the individual articles of luggage within the cargo hold of the aircraft.
The loading and unloading of an aircraft require the services of several persons conducting manual labor. For example, at least one person loads the individual articles of luggage onto one of the plurality of carts that form the xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d to be transported to the aircraft. At least another person transports the luggage to the aircraft by pulling the xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d of carts using a transport vehicle. Yet another person unloads the luggage from the plurality of carts piece by piece, and places each article of luggage onto a conveyor that transports the luggage up to the entrance of the cargo hold of the aircraft. When the luggage arrives at the entrance of the cargo hold, yet another person receives each individual article of luggage and carries it to a storage area within the cargo hold. The clearance of the cargo hold is very low, i.e., approximately 3xe2x80x2-4xe2x80x2, and therefore, the person that is organizing the luggage and transporting it to the storage area of the cargo hold must be in a crouched position in order to maneuver through the cargo hold. This same process is repeated when unloading the aircraft upon arrival.
Problems that often arise with this process include serious back injuries and excessive time consumption. The process must be performed quickly in order for airlines to stay on a strict schedule that is calculated down to the minute. The use of several different persons and several loading and unloading steps, however, are time consuming. This process is also disadvantageous because of the confusion that often occurs when loading and unloading luggage and cargo, which sometimes results in a luggage loss. Several articles of luggage must normally be sorted through in order to determine which articles of luggage should be removed from the aircraft cargo hold and which articles of luggage are to remain in the aircraft cargo hold. It is also time consuming to separate and organize the several articles of luggage depending on the final destination of the luggage. The process of carrying heavy luggage while in a crouched position can cause serious back injuries to the persons performing the manual labor.
Cargo containers that can be positioned in an aircraft cargo hold are also known and can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,529 to Feddersen et al., titled Cargo Holder and U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,504 to Wiseman et al., titled Aircraft Cargo Container. These cargo containers can be loaded with various types of cargo, including luggage, and positioned in a cargo hold of an aircraft. The cargo containers described in the above referenced patents, however, are rigid. Therefore, regardless of whether the cargo containers are full or empty, they will still occupy the same amount of space. These cargo containers are also disadvantageous because excess equipment must be used to load them onto a luggage xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d and then unload the carriers from the luggage xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d and onto the aircraft.
Luggage containers that can be positioned in the bottom portion of an aircraft fuselage are also known, such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,163 to O""Neill, titled Method and Apparatus For Handling Aircraft Passengers, Baggage and Freight. Similar to the luggage containers mentioned above, the luggage container described in O""Neill will occupy a similar amount of space regardless of whether or not it is full of cargo.
With the foregoing in mind, the present invention advantageously provides a cargo container apparatus and methods for transporting cargo between a plurality of preselected destinations. The cargo container apparatus and methods of the present invention advantageously enhances the efficiency of the cargo loading process by eliminating several steps that are encountered when loading cargo into an aircraft, and more particularly, when loading luggage into a cargo hold of a passenger aircraft. The apparatus and methods of the present invention also advantageously minimizes the time required to transfer cargo between aircrafts, i.e., connecting flights. The present invention further advantageously decreases manual labor necessary to load and unload aircraft of cargo and luggage.
More particularly, the present invention includes a cargo container apparatus having at least one cargo container and a cargo container transporter. The cargo container has a first side frame portion and a second side frame portion positioned substantially opposite the first side frame portion. The first and second side frame portions include a plurality of outer periphery frame members and a plurality of inner frame brace members positioned to connect to the plurality of outer periphery frame members. The first and second side frame portions are connected by a plurality of connecting members so that the first and second side frame portions are positioned spaced-apart and substantially parallel.
The cargo container also includes a plurality of liners positioned to detachably connect to the plurality of outer periphery frame members of the first and second side frame portions. The plurality of liners include a first plurality of liners that are positioned to detachably connect to the plurality of outer periphery frame members and overlie the plurality of connecting members to thereby form a floor of the cargo container. The liners also include a second plurality of liners positioned to detachably connect to the plurality of outer periphery frame members and overlie the plurality of inner frame brace members to thereby form wall portions of the cargo container. The detachably connected liners advantageously provide a plurality of configurations for the cargo containers, i.e., a cargo container can include walls on all sides of the cargo container if desired, or only on some of the sides of the cargo container.
The cargo container transporter includes a base portion and an elevatable platform positioned thereon. The base portion advantageously includes a wheeled vehicle. The elevatable platform includes a cargo container support surface and a pair of side support rails extending outwardly from the cargo container support surface. Each one of the pair of side support rails are advantageously positioned substantially opposite the other one of the pair of side support rails. The cargo container transporter also advantageously includes front and rear ramps positioned to respectively extend outwardly from a front portion and a rear portion of the cargo container support surface. The front and rear ramps of the cargo container transporter advantageously decrease the equipment necessary to load and unload the cargo containers into an aircraft cargo hold.
The present invention also includes a cargo organization system for transporting cargo in an aircraft cargo hold between a plurality of preselected destinations. The cargo organization system includes a plurality of cargo containers. Each one of the plurality of cargo containers includes one of a plurality of preselected destinations so that cargo having similar destinations can be positioned in one of the plurality of cargo containers. The cargo organization system also includes a label positioned on an outer portion of each of the plurality of cargo containers for identifying one of the plurality of preselected destinations of the cargo positioned in one of the plurality of cargo containers.
The cargo organization system further includes a loading order selector for selecting the order in which the plurality of cargo containers are loaded into the aircraft cargo hold. The loading order selector advantageously decreases the time necessary to load and unload cargo from an aircraft cargo hold by preselecting the order of loading of the cargo containers so that cargo containers having a destination of the first stop of the aircraft are loaded last. This advantageously eliminates the time associated with unloading cargo containers that are blocking other cargo containers.
The present invention further advantageously includes a method of transporting cargo in an aircraft cargo hold. The method includes expanding one of a plurality of cargo containers from a collapsed position, connecting a liner to a lower portion of the expanded cargo container to form a floor of the expanded cargo container, and loading cargo into the expanded cargo container.
The present invention advantageously eliminates the need for excessive manual labor to load and unload several articles of luggage into an aircraft cargo hold. More particularly, the present invention advantageously eliminates the need for a person working in a crouched position to organize luggage in an aircraft cargo hold having low clearance. The present invention advantageously allows luggage and cargo to be organized and stored into cargo containers before being loaded into an aircraft cargo hold. The present invention also eliminates the need for excessive equipment necessary to load and unload cargo, such as luggage, from an aircraft cargo hold.